In Showdown Over G.O.P. Control in Texas, the Race for House Speaker’s Seat Heads to a Runoff

Dade Phelan’s failure to secure his seat on Tuesday indicated that fights over the future direction of the Republican Party in Texas would continue roiling the state.

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The Texas House speaker, Dade Phelan, last month.

The Texas House speaker, Dade Phelan, and a local Republican activist backed by former President Donald J. Trump will compete in a runoff in May after neither received enough votes to win on Election Day, according to The Associated Press.

The contest was part of a bruising and bitter Republican primary across Texas in which dozens of incumbents faced well-funded opposition, either from supporters of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who had vowed revenge for his impeachment by the Texas House last year, or from Gov. Greg Abbott, who sought to oust opponents of his plan for school vouchers.

It remained unclear on Tuesday how many of the embattled incumbents, mostly in the Texas House, would survive or would have to continue fighting until the runoff on May 28. Candidates, consultants and voters said they had never before seen a Republican primary as hard-fought, expensive and widespread across so many districts.

“The barrage aimed at our campaign over the past year was meant to be my undoing,” Mr. Phelan said in a statement, “and yet here I am.”

But Mr. Phelan’s failure to secure his seat on Tuesday indicated that those fights over the future direction of the Republican Party would continue roiling the state.

“This has been a disastrous night for Dade Phelan,” said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who flew in a helicopter from Houston to address Mr. Covey’s supporters at a watch party in the East Texas city of Orange. “We’re a conservative state. A crimson red state. And we’ll always be.”

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